The peasants who are part of the Liga Nacional de Carperos, are demanding Fernando Lugo’s administration to deliver its campaign promise: an integral land reform that will benefit all the landless peasant families, thus reverting the current inequality where almost 70% of the cultivable lands belong to only 10% of the largest land owners.

The peasants occupied two plots of land last week, which led to the arrest of over a hundred people, ANSA news agency reported. Another 18 plots of land were occupied on Sunday and one of the estate owners accused the peasants of trying to burn down a soy plantation.

The Paraguayan Ministry of the Interior evicted four ranches and arrested one of the leaders of the protest, Jose Rodriguez.

The leader was accused by attorney Lilian Ruiz of instigating the peasants to occupy lands, which was described by the attorney as “political persecution”.
Rodriguez told the local press that the peasants said they gave the government the rest of the week to answer to their demand, otherwise they would take drastic measures.

He stressed the precarious situation in which tens of thousands of landless peasant families live. “It is outrageous that some unused land cannot be used because it is private property”, the leader told Prensa Latina.

Oxfam says Paraguay is among the world’s top ten more unequal countries. The inequality has increased as a result of the expansion of the soy plantations, of which the country is the world’s fourth producer. This mainly results from the rising cost of land, making them even more inaccessible for family farming.

Photo: http://www.rel-uita.org/